Is your teaching approach equipped to cater to every student's needs?
It is sometimes "not the curriculum itself that poses a challenge, but something within the [learner] that is not up to the learning challenge" (Bailey and Pransky, 2014)
Memory is not enough!
I have spent the last decade understanding cognitive science to the point where I have a very secure grasp of how learning happens. However, I now believe that knowing about working memory is not enough for teachers to be successful.
1. Take whatever time is needed at the start of a new subject to ensure that students find meaning and value in the new learning; periodically check on how students are doing. <— This one is so important. I have time in class to do all the other points but with the threat of learning loss looming over schools, we often don't have enough time to give students enough time to find value in the topic. It's one of the biggest issues I have with our current content schedule. It's possible but it is really difficult for newer teachers.
Wonderful thoughts and experiences of helping children and students to learn and master skills that are important to their everyday life. If exemplars of effective teaching and learning strategies are shared, reinforced and supported through continuous teacher professional learning and development activities and programs and are monitored regularly by school leaders, there is hope for improvement of student learning achievement.
I think the thoughts that were posted on how to try and help the students learn more efficiently are really important. I think it would be great to implement it into their every day routines. I also think that this being posted can help out some other teachers. I think they are all important because so many teachers could use this information. #5, “it is essential to teach only when students are paying attention”. I think that one is a really important one beacuse if no one is paying attention, you are not going to get anywhere. Could make the lessons more engaging as well. I also think trying to implement a students background is a great point. If you do that in a majority of your lessons it will engage the students more because it is something that they are more interested in and get excited about those things.
I spent many lessons ignoring pupils who were ‘chatting at the back of the room’ whilst I was teaching because I was fearful they would make a fuss and we would end up in endless lessons of arguments. With experience, as my confidence grew, I started to challenge them as I realised the science of learning = you CANNOT learn if you are not conscious in the moment.
The message? if students are having low-level conversations whilst you are talking, they are NOT learning!
I think it’s best to mix actual learning with auxiliary learning. Like solving a crossword puzzle on Mondays and then following up Tuesday with a history lesson. Themed crosswords are even better because then you can cross-relate what you learned.